it was for the pentagon. >> to that point, michael, they've said that's one of their foreign policy victories. we ended the war in iraq yet at the same time there's so much iranian influence and so much suspicion of the shiite connection to iranians and the fact that iran used their airspace. do you think that this is a safe space for them to keep bragging about iraq or is iraq still a work in progress, very much a work in progress? >> well, what i tried to do in the book with general trainor was assess the administration in terms of what they themselves tried to do in iraq. they tried to do much more than just take the troops out. they tried to construct basically a coalition government, a partnership government in which power would be shared because there's a lot of concern that maliki is acting in a authoritarian way. they did try to negotiate an agreement to keep small force in iraq of 3,000 to 5,000. they did plan to have a substantial number of american police trainers. civilian presence to keep american influence in that part of the world. none of those things that they tried to do really happen